This invention relates to a method of manufacturing composite materials comprising a matrix in which reinforcing material such as continuous fibres are embedded.
A major problem encountered in the production of metal matrix composites relates to the reactivity of the metal matrix with the reinforcing material during manufacture. This is particularly a problem where the fibres are carbon fibres. In some methods of manufacture, molten metal is poured over, or contacts, the fibres. In other prior known methods the matrix material and the reinforcing fibres are consolidated together for sufficient times at elevated pressures and temperatures to cause a significant reaction to take place between the fibres and the matrix.
There are other processes such as high temperature vapour deposition of metal on to carbon fibres or diffusion bonding of a metal matrix to the fibres where there is a chemical reaction between the fibres and the metal matrix.
In all of the known methods of manufacture the chemical reaction between the metal matrix and the fibres is unacceptable because it deleteriously lowers the strength of the composite and can degrade the fibres to an extent that the composite is of inferior quality.